Retired Commander John Edward Moser, USNR received the Marquette NROTC 2010 Alumni of the Year award from the Marquette NROTC Alumni & Friends Association on 5 November, 2010, during the NROTC Unit’s 235th Naval Services Birthday Ball at the Italian Conference Center.

Moser enrolled at Marquette University in 1941 and joined NROTC. He was commissioned a Navy ensign in February 1944, a year before graduating, due to pressing WWII leadership needs. He served in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Strength, AM-309, sweeping mines prior to amphibious landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and in the Tsu Shima Straits. His ship swept 234 mines and downed a kamikaze plane. He next became Commanding Officer of U.S.S. Gayety, AM-239 stateside before leaving active duty in April 1946. He returned to Marquette, completed his civil engineering degree in 1947, and began a career with the Wisconsin Telephone Co. as a supervising engineer.

The Korean War resulted in Moser’s recall to active duty in November 1950 as Executive Officer aboard U.S.S. Revenge, AM-110. He subsequently commanded U.S.S. Minah, AMCU-14, testing underwater locating equipment for the Navy Laboratory in Panama City, Florida. He then moved to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to supervise a major conversion of the Minah.

After two years on active duty Moser returned to Wisconsin Telephone, and received his professional civil engineering license in June 1967. He retired from the Telephone Company in 1982. He remained in the active reserves until July 1970. On 1 April 1983 he was listed in the Retired Naval Reserves. Moser spent 28 years on combined active and reserve duty.

An Eagle Scout as a boy, Moser carried a commitment to community into his Navy and professional career, and his retirement. He served as a weekly volunteer and in many other roles with the Reserve Officers Association, Naval Retired Activities Office, Military Officers Association of America, American Legion, Navy League, Boy Scouts, Ronald McDonald House, Columbia Hospital, St. Francis Childrens’ Center, St. Monica parish, and for 25 years as an auxiliary policemen with the Whitefish Bay, WI police department.

Commander Moser was also a founding member and officer of the Marquette NROTC Alumni & Friends Association, which was launched in 1987. He and his wife Shirley received the “Mr. and Mrs. Reserve Officers Association” award. They had six children, ten grandchildren and two great grandchildren at the time they received the Alumni of the Year award.

At the 2010 presentation, Marquette NROTC Alumni & Friends President Paul T. Riedl said, “John is an extremely good example of someone who has served his country and communities very well.”